Civic Need
A Civic Need is the current public objective displayed during the Read stage of Workday. It identifies the materials or activity associated with the settlement's next development and supplies the planning context used by the Foreman's Clipboard.
- Location
- Workday's Read stage and the need display.
- Progress
- The lesser of unreserved inventory and the remaining requirement.
- Planning estimate
max(0, remaining amount - free inventory) / displayed net rate.- Related activities
- Construction, Public Works, recipes, orders, notices, and dispatches.
Operation
The Workday sequence pairs a Civic Need with collection and an optional commitment. Collect All settles eligible ordinary production before materials are assigned to a building, a Public Work, a recipe, or another named destination. A need can therefore frame a short return without requiring every available activity to be completed.
Petitions associated with Public Works accumulate through separate donations and can span several Workdays. Their relationship to a Civic Need is directional: the need identifies a civic priority while the petition records the materials already contributed.
Inventory and estimates
Only goods free for the stated objective count toward a Civic Need. Materials held by an accepted Work Order remain reserved for that order, and a current receipt distinguishes them from newly accepted producer output.
The displayed net rate and free inventory produce an approximate waiting estimate. A need requiring 20 goods, with 12 free goods and a displayed rate of 2 per minute, has an estimated remaining wait of four minutes. When free inventory already covers the requirement, the estimate is zero.
Competing needs
The Foreman's Clipboard compares choices by the time saved toward the next declared need. Needs within about 5% of one another are presented as a choice, allowing current stock, processing time, and planned materials to determine the order of work.